Subscribe to the latest research through IGI Global's new InfoSci-OnDemand Plus

InfoSci®-OnDemand Plus, a subscription-based service, provides researchers the ability to access full-text content from over 93,000+ peer-reviewed book chapters and 24,000+ scholarly journal articles covering 11 core subjects. Users can select articles or chapters that meet their interests and gain access to the full content permanently in their personal online InfoSci-OnDemand Plus library.

When ordering directly through IGI Global's Online Bookstore, receive the complimentary e-books for the first, second, and third editions with the purchase of the Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology, Fourth Edition e-book.

InfoSci®-Journals Annual Subscription Price for New Customers: As Low As US$ 4,080*

This collection of over 185 e-journals offers unlimited access to highly-cited, forward-thinking content in full-text PDF and HTML with no DRM. There are no platform or maintenance fees and a guarantee of no more than 5% increase annually.

Abstract

This study highlights the findings of researchers who, since the early 1980s, recognized the potential of engaging seniors in game interactions as an alternative to passive activities. Against this background, the perspective of anticipatory processes for evaluating specific gaming needs of the aging and providing games with anticipatory features is introduced. The hypothesis informing this work is that aging results in diminished adaptive abilities, resulting from decreased anticipatory performance. To mitigate the consequences of reduced anticipatory performance, we address brain plasticity through playing. Since anticipation is expressed in action, the games conceived, designed, and produced for triggering brain plasticity need to engage the sensory, cognitive, and motoric. The AnticipationScope, i.e., integration of motion-capture data and physiological sensors, is the platform for identifying individual characteristics and for validating the results of game participation. The output is the Anticipatory Profile. Implementations inspired by this original scientific framework are presented.

Catching Up With The Adult Seniors

Today, games for health, and in particular games addressing the rapidly growing aging population, represent a large segment—evaluated at 26%—of the entire effort to conceive, design, produce, and market games of all kind. One of the games used in this effort—Surprise! Surprise!—is tennis. And one of the most important observations made so far is that playing tennis with the computer is interesting at the beginning. However, playing with someone else, for instance, over the Internet, is what users want, regardless of whether they are beginners or those handicapped seniors who once upon a time used to play real tennis every day. The social aspect of playing is actually more important for the aging than for any other demographic group: “Games will entice the aging to remain fit and mentally active, to connect with others” (Montet, 2006).